Surprisingly, not.  1.5 busy standard carriages, and 0.5 first unoccupied. I was a little surprised, but when you think about it / if you met the passengers, this was a new market of people who hadn't used a train for years (50 years in one case!), or in some cases were making their first train journey and / or their first adult train journey.

There is a huge difference between a survey in which 1,000 people from a membership of 33,000 are randomly selected (say every member who's membership number ends in 01, 34 and 67) and a survey in which all 33,000 members are invite to take part and 1,000 actually do so.  There is useful information to be gained from the latter but it's can't (or rather shouldn't) be extrapolated to suggest that "xx% of our members think that ..."

Which methodology did the IOD use?  Which do those other organisations use?

I've updated the agenda and provided further information for this meeting - here is a the information being emailed out this afternoon to a wide range of supporters and would be supporters.  All the links in the quote should work - most are to .pdf documents, and some are quite interesting 

OK .. it's the morning after.  Great day had by all; almost all new people to the Weymouth trip from Melksham.   So that's another marketing approach that brings them in.  And they all want to go again.

Big thank you to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for moving the 06:38 to 08:38 for the bank holiday.  Big thanks for printing the leaflet which included this as part of a much more comprehensive "Melksham Trains" pitch.  Big thank you to all the staff on the day - both on train and at control, who arranged for the 19:32 to be held at Westbury awaiting a late running 17:30 off Weymouth with around 100 people making the change.

Day enjoyed by all.   Numbers about right / the pinch point was the 17:30 off Weymouth, loaded to around 140% - not as frightening as it sounds as there were lots of young children sharing seats and only one solitary grump who felt it was a poor show.

Full writeup at http://melksh.am/4160 ... other pictures not in that article:

Indeed ... First Great Western do a similar thing for peak departures from Weymouth (and I mean true peak in terms of busyness rather than peak fare times).  Useful to help choosing which train to travel home on after a day / weekend at the seaside.

I caught the 08:38 train from Melksham to Westbury this morning;  there were 49 other people getting on the train with me, and about the same number already on board from Swindon and Chippenham.   About 60 people got off to change trains in Trowbridge, and the remaining 40 of so carried on to Westbury where they changed for places like Southampton and Weymouth.

This isn't a usual Monday on the TransWilts line - on a usual Monday, the train leaves for Trowbridge 2 hours earlier - at 06:38, and passengers for Weymouth have not 30 minutes but 150 minutes to wait at Westbury.  Unsurprisingly, not many people do this - especially as the adult fare is 36 pounds return each, whereas this morning it was just 32 pounds for our whole group of four.

"Provide a train and they will use it" ... and indeed the TransWilts line needs a service at better times, and more frequent;  we're taking advantage of the retiming - done for us (Thank you) by First Great Western ... to revalidate what can be achieved.  In the summer of 2011, the Sunday morning train to Weymouth from Westbury started back at Swindon and carried a minimum of 100, and up to 300 passengers from there, from Chippenham and from Melksham.  Today with just the single opportunity this summer holiday, we only advertised through a leaflet printed by First (more thanks ;-)) distributed around Melksham, primarily telling people about the daily service, about Saturday opportunities to Swindon, and about the line as a whole.  We're on something of a knifeedge in terms of the advertsing - advertise the one opportunity in Swindon, and you'll have the train so full from there that there will be no room for others at Chippenham let alone Melksham.  Seated in the Weymouth train now, approaching Chetnole, it's all seats taken, lobbies crowded, but not stifling and I have to say "spot on".   We COULD have loaded the train a lot more ... and we will bring lots more to Weymouth - and to other places - when there's more services every day between the 06:12 and the 18:44 from Swindon.

In reading back the words attributed to me (which looked very odd - "Im sure I didn't say i in that way") it looks remarkably as if it's a sentence which I started and has the end of some words from an FGW spokesperson pasted on the end.  Another journalist copied me on some FGW spokesperson text which looks remarkably similar in wording.

Looking for historic train usage figures, I came across this in a 2007 ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) report:



http://www.atoc.org/clientfiles/files/publicationsdocuments/npsA67D_tmp.pdf

and the report goes on to look at / forward for the next 50 years.  An interesting read, forecasting continuing growth and how to cope with that growth - you can see the seeds of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) in there, and beyond.   I saw the other day (help, can someone remind me of the reference) a forecast of a further 40% growth in passenger numbers forecast in the next few years, and I'm conscious of rises even since the graph above was compiled

Chippenham - 1.47 million to 1.75 million journeys per annum 2007/8 to 2011/12
Trowbridge - 0.58 million to 0.78 million
Salisbury 1.68 million to 1.88 million
Swindon 2.76 million to 3.23 million
Warminster 0.3 million to 0.35 million
Bradford-on-Avon 0.29 million to 0.46 million
Frome 0.1 million to 0.15 million
Westbury 0.35 million to 0.45 million

That's a rise from 7.53 million to 9.05 million journeys (over 20%) in just 4 years ... and you'll note I'm quoting number of journeys, when it's the average journey length which has shown a pattern of growth over the years, was at record (non wartime) levels in 2007 and is undoubtedly much higher now that 4 years ago!

I have seen what a spokesperson from one of the key players has said to our local newspaper, and also have correspondence from another key player which confirms rather than denies.   You can see I'm being very careful indeed with my words. The Open Train Times data, to which a link was posted on another forum and also here, came rather earlier than might have been expected by the more traditional elements in the various organisations involved.

Next Saturday - 31st August - we have the Special General Meeting of the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) at which the constitution should be confirmed. We're not planning a big gathering - rather key players who want to do any knife and fork reading of the document, but we do expect to be filled in on much more detail and officially then on the TransWilts' steps forward, although the overall management deal for the period from 12th October for the South West may not be so sure and I wouldn't expect to hear much on that.    I will be posting an agenda for that meeting in the next 24 hours.

Personal view - I'll totally believe it when the 10:56 rolls up on 8th December, but the ways that it may not happen - such as the management contract going to Direct Operated Railways - seem unlikely.

I'm not sure where you're quoting me from, James ... I don't think I have said that anywhere; it's not my view that there should be side loops on the mains to allow non-stop trains to pass semifasts.

Putting extra stops in to cover more stations at peak time especially doesn't make sense as it will lead to more overcrowding - I posted the maths of that in an earlier post when we were talking about why there's a gap at Surbiton, and I don't recall seeing any answer suggested to that.   We've explored the idea of extra stops, and the consensus is that it will overcrowd and irritate - unless anyone has any new points, shall we move on?

The list should read "From left, Ian Taylor, Nick Watts, Ian Cunningham, Horace Prickett, Graham Ellis and  Duncan Hames MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)"

I too remain definitely undecided on HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) - if I'm going to take a position I like to do it from a strong and balanced knowledge which I feel I lack in this case. I do note that Andrew Adonis is speaking very strongly in favour ...

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/08/exclusive-adonis-hits-back-hs2-critics-and-warns-labour-not-abandon-support?

I have a huge respect for Andrew - he's a former secretary of state for Transport and from initial concerns when he came to that role, he rapidly gained a very great deal of respect in many quarters. 

"It's a rail boost for Wiltshire commuters"

http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/10632012._/?

Sorry - Sion - I appear to have been given your position ... I'm just the press spokesman and publicist.  And they've taken bits of two very different quotes of mine and banged 'em together in an odd way.  All of this doesn't really matter - the real good news is the enhancements, and the support from First, from Wiltshire Council, from Network Rail, and from MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament).   

We now have to make sure it works. Provided things join up properly and work together, it will!

James, from my personal (non-railman) experience, I can assure you that the amount of analysis that goes in before any changes / improvements are made is huge.   Where possible, multiple pieces of analysis are done and checked that they all end up pointing in the same direction, and "proof" is requested / required that every aspect of the scheme will work - the ducks will all line up.  That's certainly what I've seen just on the one small rail project to which I've been making a small contribution.


I have been highly impressed, and continue to be, by the professionalism of almost everyone in the rail industry, a number of whom are very much valued members of our Coffee Shop community, and help keep us informed here.  There are a huge number of technicalities and details I don't know about and never will (I would have to give up my day job to have the time to understand even a little of it) but I often find myself reassured that things have indeed been considered when others bring them up and professionals answer.  At times, this consideration and the reasons for decisions may not be immediately obvious to the newcomer though!

Your site (you are one of the people behind it, right?) looks very interesting and I expect I'll be making us of it.  I loved


Any thoughts of maps or other navigation aids as well as the alphabetic lists?  I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I'll often stay a station or two up the line from where I'm working in order to find a hotel that suits me.